+44 and Angels & Airwaves

So, yeah. That ‘weekly blogging’ idea lasted long didn’t it Lee you stupid DICK…

BUT, despite nobody even fucking noticing that I’d gone, I am back! Briefly. Maybe. And the excuse for my inept ability to publish something is three-fold. One, I’ve been busy. Some of us HAVE/HAD jobs you know?! [Delete as appropriate after my inevitable demotion]. Two, I’ve accidentally become quite obsessed with two bands that I have only just got round to listening to, and as a result I’ve refused to listen to anything else as stubbornly as I did when I told people I would never listen to these bands when they first made their appearances back in 2005. And three, I started writing this blog about a fucking week ago…

You see, when love-of-my-life Blink-182 announced their indefinite hiatus way, way back in the days of the mid-noughties (who remembers the Playstation 2 eh?!? Those were crazier times…) I vowed a pathetic snubbing of follow up bands +44 and Angels & Airwaves by persistently protesting my reasonable and well researched argument that ‘they’ll just be fucking shit mate’.

But goddammit I was a fool! A damned fool I tell you! After the band's reunion and their best album yet ‘Neighborhoods’, I threw away my six year old bitter cap, and decided I’d give the debut albums of +44 and AVA (that’s an abbreviation for Angels & Airwaves BY THE WAY) a well deserved listen. And what I discov-

ACTUALLY JUST AS A SIDE NOTE, I am fully aware that these bands don’t even nearly classify as ‘classic’ or ‘prestigious’ enough to be reviewed in a blog supposedly reviewing ‘classic’ and ‘prestigious’ albums. Especially when the fourth review includes not one, but two bands from the 00’s punk rock era that I quite specifically announced I was endeavouring to temporarily steer myself away from. But then I thought – oh fuck it. If I say that every now and then I might end up discovering a band within said genre, and that every now and then I might just write a little review on them in order to keep up my blog in times where I wind up not being able to listen to anything else, then I’m sure we can maintain a harmonious relationship. You stupid whiney bitches.

-ered is that those motherfuckers had only gone and developed, shaped, tweaked and consequently improved on Blink’s sound with their own personal touches. And, to Past Lee’s disbelief, it turns out that AVA and +44 are actually better than pre-‘Neighborhoods’ Blink-182. As in, they weren’t actually fucking shit at all. Mate. (Stupid naïve Past Lee. He’s so stupid).

+44 enter their first album ‘When Your Heart Stops Beating’ with clear indication that they haven’t deserted their punk rock roots, kicking in with an instantly fast and heavy sound that captures the energy of an early Blink-182 while managing to maintain a ‘mature’ sound – most notably in songs such as ‘Lycanthrope’, ‘Cliff Diving’ and title track ‘When Your Heart Stops Beating’. Although evidently more reminiscent of Blink than AVA are, +44 doesn’t sound like Blink-182, but more a progression of them. ‘155’ specifically sounds very much like it could quite easily have ended up on ‘Neighborhoods’. (There is a definite ‘feel’ of +44 and AVA woven into ‘Neighborhoods’, clearly due to the new influences that would have come from both bands. But tracks like ‘155’ and ‘Baby Come On’ feel that they could easily have made the eventual Blink cut (‘Baby Come On’ genuinely felt as though it needed Tom’s voice on the chorus…), in the same way that ‘Heart’s All Gone’ and ‘MH 4.18.2011’ from said album could have been on ‘When Your Heart Stops Beating’. AVA does this as well, but I’ll cover that when we get there. I’ve written the bit on AVA already to be honest, but whacked the +44 bit in first to help the flow of the blog. Just wait until you get there before I start making the Blink connections. Just… just keep reading. Please. I mention my penis in the first paragraph. That’s incentive enough. Just, read the whole blog. It took a fucking week to write goddammit!)

Hooooooowever, ‘When Your Heart Stops Beating’ proves itself as much more than just a standard punk rock album. Mark and Travis’ initial intention of creating an ‘electronic’ sound filters through on occasion, and the band members varying influences direct the album’s ever changing tone and mood in a well constructed manner. ‘Little Death’ and ‘Weatherman’ slow the album down with a solemn, almost haunting sound, featuring darker lyrics such as ‘A little death makes life more meaningful/I stand no chance at all’ and ‘Let me slip away, I’m barely holding on/Every now and then I feel the end of us’ respectively, whereas tracks such as ‘Lillian’ and ‘Make You Smile’ bring in slightly calmer, melodious elements.

The strongest track on this album however comes towards the end in ‘No, It Isn’t’. Mark writes about his relationship with Tom, and – although not something I support as a fan (I always tended to side with Tom post-Blink) – the pure hatred felt towards him as Mark sings ‘Please understand, this isn’t just goodbye/This is I can’t stand you’ captures the frustration and exhaustion that he obviously felt before the dissolution of Blink. It brings so much power to the song that it’s almost draining for the listener having to hear it, let alone poor little Tom DeLonge when it ‘accidentally’ leaked its way onto the internet on his fucking birthday. Bless him.

TALKING OF TOM, and flipping to the other side of this beautiful coin, we land on Angels & Airwaves, who actually manage to steer away from Blink comparisons almost completely with the only ‘early Blink’ sound featuring in the opening riff of ‘The War’. But even then it is carried in the ‘AVA style’, as it later explodes into a stadium sounding chorus sang in a way that only Tom DeLonge can make sound as powerful as he does. I should say now that I genuinely can’t pick a favourite between the two bands at this stage, but unfortunately for +44, I happen to be ridiculously overemotional for someone with a penis (wheeey, there it is), and believe that Tom DeLonge is far more emotionally attached to his lyrics than Mark, which – in my opinion – gives AVA’s album a slight edge over ‘When Your Heart Stops Beating’ in terms of it feeling more personal to the listener. There’s something captivating in hearing that passion and pain in Tom’s voice as he shouts ‘Why won’t you tell me that it’s almost over?’ in ‘The War’, or chants ‘You know I won’t say sorry’ in ‘Start the Machine’ (a song about the Blink split).

However, in defence of +44, AVA does seem to come across purely as a product of Tom DeLonge’s delicate little mind, whereas Mark and Travis combine a variety of other’s influences into ‘When Your Heart Stops Beating’, (the band initially began as a trio, featuring Get The Girl vocalist Carol Heller who co-sings with Mark on ‘Make You Smile’ contributing to a lot of the lyrics and early editions of the songs). Not that AVA being led by Tom DeLonge is a bad thing in the slightest (in some people’s eyes anyway. Well… specifically mine, really…), but just that the album sticks to a set sound throughout, whereas +44’s flits between a number of styles. Although, to seemingly trade alliances again, ‘We Don’t Need To Whisper’ therefore comes across as a much more ‘complete’ album than ‘When Your Heart Stops Beating’. It flows particularly well, and allows you to (excuse the cliché) enjoy the ‘journey’ in a much more comfortable and appreciative manner. Almost every song is laced with a bittersweet feel, with tracks like ‘Do It For Me Now’, ‘A Little’s Enough’ and first single ‘The Adventure’ really pulling you into the moment. It’s in feeling Tom’s apparent pain that makes this album stronger (although not necessarily better) than +44’s. In listening to both albums, it’s almost as if you’re hearing two sides from a couple who have broken up, with Mark and Travis being the initiators of the separation and getting on with their lives, and Tom being the one left depressed and heartbroken, venturing through the painful process of having to rebuild himself. I mean, just listen to him in ‘Start the Machine’! ‘I grew so close to all the thoughts I had to leave forever’. Oh GOD it gets to me. Damn you effeminate emotions!

BUT – the sudden termination of Blink allowed Tom to try something crazy and different, just like everyone does after a soul destroying break up. You know, like… getting a new haircut, or moving cities, or getting a spur of the moment tattoo which looks as though it’s been drawn onto your chest in marker pen… you know, those… those type of things...

But it was only in going through this that the reunion of Blink-182 could then benefit from Tom’s experiments - thus, enter 'The Bracketed ‘Neighborhoods’ Comparison: Part Two'.

(After hearing the respective bands of the Blink members, even including Box Car Racer and Travis’ crazy side shit here, listening to the new Blink album is even more fascinating, as you can begin to piece together the influences that constructed the album. For example, ‘Love is Dangerous’, ‘Ghost On The Dance Floor’ and ‘This is Home’ include the distinctive synth sounds of AVA which hadn’t appeared in Blink songs before. And, like tracks from +44’s album, AVA’s ‘Do It For Me Now’ and ’It Hurts’ could genuinely be mistaken as songs off of the ‘Neighborhoods’ album also. If it wasn’t for these varying styles coming together Hadron Collider style in those long months of recording ‘Neighborhoods’, then there’s every chance that one, the album just wouldn’t have happened, and two, it would quite simply have just been fucking shit mate.)

So, before I start unnecessarily trailing off into a review of ‘Neighborhoods’, here is the paragraph you’re never actually supposed to refer to as a summary, but is just quite clearly a fucking summary…

‘When Your Heart Stops Beating’ presents a progression upon the band we all (we all) loved, but manages to throw in a few ‘experimental’ songs that, arguably, appear to be the best on the album. Nobody wanted another ‘Blink’, but at the same time we didn’t want some fucked up venture in an opposite direction, and +44 manage to meet this horrifically difficult standard exceptionally well.

‘We Don’t Need To Whisper’ does bring a new sound to the table, but fuck me do they make it work. Tom’s devotion and dedication to continue doing what he loved is clearly carried in a strong and emotional album which pays off in its gamble to steer away from Blink-182’s established punk rock sound.

And – for the first time in seven years – I can finally admit that Blink-182 splitting up was the best thing that could have ever happened to them.

So take that Past Lee.

You stupid bastard.

Immediate stand out tracks:

+44

No, It Isn’t; Make You Smile; Baby Come On; Weatherman, When Your Heart Stops Beating

Angels & Airwaves

A Little’s Enough; It Hurts; The Adventure; Do It For Me Now; The War

Link to albums:

http://open.spotify.com/user/spillee86/playlist/3KHqDYA9ueq1g6700pwjdP